Cannot understand a word the professor is saying!

[Marie_LPN, RN]

English is not the primary language for one of my professors. His nationality is irrelevant to the problem, so is the name of the class, although this class IS a requirement.

The problems is, it's been a couple of weeks, and i STILL can't understand a word he is saying because his accent is so thick. I'd hate to have to approach him and say "i can't understand a word you say," yet i really don't know what to do. One phrase that i CAN understand is "Everybody with me?" Well, not really, i'm not.

Arg.

(One of my other classmates said he is hard to understand as well.)

[Hoozdo, ADN]

Nobody could understand him and the class was Pathophysiology yet. Complaints to the dean did no good, they had nobody to replace him with. He had really funny ways of pronouncing words too that would translate into LOL funny......for example every time he said infarction it ended up inf*cktion:D It got so riduculous that the class would laugh.......I kinda felt sorry for him. My only advice is to self study the book really hard! I ended up not even paying attention in lecture and read the book in lecture!

Best of luck Marie,

Lu Ann

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I am not defending university policies but they generally hire professors and grant them tenure based on their skills as a researcher. Their ability to teach is secondary.

Grannynurse :balloons:

I am not question his ability or skills. I simply said i cannot understand a word he says.

[grannynurse FNP student]

I am not question his ability or skills. I simply said i cannot understand a word he says.

I understand your frustration. I am only saying, universities do not grant tenure or hire professors based on their teaching abilities. They are generally hired based on their research ability, hence their ability to obtain grant monies and to bring monies from the outcomes of their research. Believe it or not, and I have paid some of the highest tution rates, universities cannot sustain themselves on tution alone. They cannot even sustain themselves with alumni donations and tution. They need the monies that accompany research.

You may have a difficult time understanding this professor. If everyone in the class had a similar problem, he would not be teaching. So, the appropriate conclusion is that there are language and accent problems but they are not endemic. The only advice I can offer you is, drop the class and take it under someone else or tape and play back his lectures slowly and do your reading.

Grannynurse

[Maren26]

I am having the same problem in my Algebra class right now and more than half of the whole class (18 of us) failed the first two tests! We can see what she's writing on the board but cannot understand her explanations. I have decided to speak with someone from administration and I don't feel bad for not talking to her first. I don't want to be offensive but i want the administration to be aware of the problem because it's effecting our grades.

[RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN]

I was in the exact same situation. This was my Chemistry professor. I tried taking it with another instructor but the classes were full. I ended staying and I made my lowest grade yet a B+

Anyhow, I talked to her (kindly of course) and she did her very best to speak slower and allow me to ask all the needed questions.

Good luck Marie :)

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I've been in school (this go around) for three years now and I'm sorry about the language difficulty. However, I personally feel that since I'm paying my hard-earned money to this institution to learn something, they need to provide me with an instructor that can speak English (if that is the language the class is taught in). Sorry, there is simply no excuse. I had an online algebra class and the instructor couldn't spell or use correct sentence structure. I asked my advisor and told her I wanted another instructor (I was not willing to drop it). So...that's my $0.02 worth.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Raise your hand and/or speak out, "Would you say that again, please?" When he asks if everybody is with him, speak out "no". I am sure he asks this because other students have had problems understanding what he is lecturing on. I am also sure that he is very much aware of the difficulty students might be having with his accent. He cannot know that you are struggling with his lecture if you do not tell him. This is not a time to be polite and sit back. Be pleasant, but let him know when you're not understanding what he is saying. There are very tactful ways to address this with him without making an embarrassing scene for him in front of the class. If you "break the ice" and start doing these things I wouldn't be surprised that others in the class will follow suit. It's your grade, not his. You have a responsibility to address the problem with him first before passing the buck and running to the next person up the chain of command.

Something you will need to learn as a nurse is that you cannot be a wallflower. You must be assertive and advocate for patients. In this case you are going to have to advocate for yourself. Just be tactful about it--no need to be mean to the man. I'm sure he teaches because he wants to teach you what he knows, not to make your life miserable. You will have patients who have language barriers also and it will be part of your responsibility to break through that barrier in some way so you can help those patients rather than give up on them.

[piscesgirl]

I know exactly how you feel. My chem teacher has a really thick accent to and no one in the class can understand him. For example Iodine is e-o-dean. magnesium is magneshenum, atomic is atunic, reaction is rection, aluminum is umnumb,... most of the class has resorted to teaching themselves with the book. I find it a little fun trying to determine what hes saying, especially when i get bored in a 3 hour class. lol good luck everyone